Portable battery-powered communication devices, such as two-way radios, along with associated accessories are advantageous in many environments, but particularly in public safety environments, such as fire rescue. First responders operating in fire rescue environments face many challenges including working under severe high temperature, smoke-filled conditions, while carrying and wearing heavy cumbersome equipment and protective clothing. Maintaining body hydration while operating at a fire incident is thus a major concern for firefighters.
Dehydration is a leading cause of low performance and serious illness for firefighters. Past dehydration detection approaches have not proven sufficient to address the needs of today's fire rescue personnel working at fire incidents.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for monitoring hydration, particularly hydration of a firefighter during a fire incident.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.